First published in 1990 by Legend Paperbacks. This edition published by Venture Press, an imprint of Endeavour Press Ltd in 2016. This one’s for Mum, And as always, for Diane. Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN ПОСЛЕСЛОВИЕ CHAPTER ONE Concerning Tsar Aleksandr and his children The walled town of Khorlov was no city, and the mansion at the centre of it was no palace, but the citadel at the heart of the mansion was a proper kremlin just as much as the great palace-strongholds in the great cities of the greatest princes in the land. The best that could be said about it was that it looked as if it was there to protect Khorlov rather than to dominate and threaten it, as so many of the larger fortresses seemed to do to the cities cowering around the hems of their grim stone garments.
